By Krisztina Than and Gabriela Baczynska
BUDAPEST/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Hungary locked horns on Wednesday with fellow European Union members over Ukraine’s bid to join the wealthy bloc, aggravating a dispute that could hold up Kyiv’s membership drive and was set to overshadow an EU summit.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reaffirmed his opposition to offering neighbouring Ukraine fast-track accession at this week’s summit, saying to parliament this would not serve the interests of Hungary or the 27-member EU.
With both sides digging in their heels, Ukraine’s hopes of securing much-needed financial and military assistance to fight Russian invasion forces hung in the balance.
Orban, a conservative nationalist who is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the EU, told parliament that starting talks with Kyiv to let it into the bloc one day was an idea that “at the moment is absurd, ridiculous and not serious”.
His comments contrasted sharply with remarks by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the European Parliament.
“We must give Ukraine what it needs to be strong today so that it can be stronger tomorrow at the table when it is negotiating a long-lasting and just peace for Ukraine,” she said.
Orban has threatened to block proposals to allow Kyiv to start accession talks and to receive substantial financial and military aid from the EU budget.
Kyiv wants to join the EU and build alliances with the West as it distances itself further from former fellow Soviet republic Russia, while 50 billion euros ($54 billion) of economic support and 20 billion euros for Ukraine’s military would be vital for its war effort.
In an apparent rebuke to Hungary, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there needed to be more decision-taking by qualified majority in the EU to prevent single nations from having a veto on issues such as accession.
“National parliaments would still have the final say, but a single country would no longer be able to block every single step,” he told German lawmakers.
UKRAINE’S CONCERNS
Raising the stakes, the executive European Commission reminded Hungary it had still not taken the final step needed to unlock billions of euros in funds, frozen over concerns that Orban has damaged democratic checks and balances in his country.
Hungary, an EU member since 2004, later published further judicial reforms in its official journal. An EU official said the Commission was expected to unlock funds later in the day.
Ukraine is worried that Western military support may be dwindling nearly two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Washington this week to try to press Kyiv’s case for more aid.
He said during a visit to Oslo that Kyiv had done what was asked of it on the path to EU accession talks, and that Hungary had no reason to block Ukraine’s accession drive.
“From our side we have been very constructive. We have done absolutely everything, we completed the recommendations of the European Union,” Zelenskiy said.
A senior EU diplomat said that a way would be found to get funding to Ukraine and circumvent any block from Hungary.
“One way or another, we will find the way to give Ukraine money. There are various options,” the diplomat said, including a possible side deal by 26 EU members outside the bloc’s main budget framework.
EU leaders, including Orban, were expected to start arriving in Brussels from Wednesday evening to first talk about EU accession bids by countries such as Bosnia, Georgia and Moldova that are tied to Ukraine. ($1 = 0.9273 euros)
(Reporting by Krisztina Than in Budapest and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; additional reporting by Max Hunder in Kyiv and Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; writing by Keith Weir; editing by Timothy Heritage and Mark Heinrich)
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